It’s impossible to say whether “Moonlight Mile” was fun to write, but its central characters keep it fun to read, even when ratcheting the tension tight. Those looking for another “Mystic River” or “Shutter Island” from Dennis Lehane will find this one a departure; those looking for a sequel to “Gone, Baby, Gone” (1998) will re-enter the lives of private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. They will also revisit Amanda McCready, abducted as a 4-year-old and who now, 12 years later, is missing again.

Kenzie is the narrator, and Lehane sets his tone in the novel’s opening paragraph. He’s tailing a trust-fund baby who acts completely the entitled jerk — not the description Kenzie uses — and in a burst of dialogue that would do Elmore Leonard proud, says the kid isn’t a run-of-the-mill ass, but rather, someone who “worked double shifts at it.”

It’s a statement that sets up Kenzie for the reader, though he’s much more than a cynical smart-mouth. He’s being given an opportunity to atone for his actions of 12 years before; that’s when he found Amanda and pulled her from a loving but illegal adoption and returned her to her drug-abusing mother.

He and partner Gennaro have fallen on tough economic times. He’s on the verge of a full-time job with Duhamel-Standiford, a venerable Boston investigations firm. A regular paycheck and benefits seem worth a job that puts him in a position of guarding the interests of sleezeballs.

Lack of a regular gig, however, means that he’s open when approached by Amanda’s aunt, who tells him the girl has once again disappeared. He is initially loathe to take the job, but Gennaro pushes him.

Amanda has defied the odds and turned out well. She’s in her senior year at a private girls school, to which she’d arranged scholarships, and the Ivy League seems her next stop. Her disappearance makes no sense, and the more that Kenzie and Gennaro investigate, the odder it seems.

Amanda has developed a knack for creating false identities. And though her mother initially denies the disappearance, it turns out that she isn’t the only one searching for Amanda. Some Mordovian mobsters are also interested in her whereabouts, and they have no qualms about resorting to violence to achieve their end.

“Moonlight Mile” barrels apace, buoyed by the Kenzie and Gennaro dialogue as much as by the twists of the hunt. It turns out that Amanda’s only school friend, Sophie, is also missing. An interview with her father is less than fruitful, but it offers insight into the investigative pair.

When Sophie’s father says, “Plenty of recent studies have shown that it’s our coddling of pubescent children in this country that contributes to an extended adolescence and arrested development,” Kenzie responds, “I still can’t believe they canceled that show . . . It was genius.” And when the father explains, “I finally drew a line in the sand — lose ten pounds within forty days or leave the house,” Gennaro asks for clarification: “You made your daughter’s food and shelter conditional on her going on a diet?”

The repartee between the two is worthy of Nick and Nora Charles, sans alcohol. They find Amanda, who isn’t eager to be found, but they are only a few steps ahead of the mobsters. The puzzle escalates into a twisting, tense chase. Though it is clear that Kenzie and Gennaro will emerge, it is less clear that they will be unscathed. And Amanda’s future, if there is to be one, is certainly up for grabs.

“Moonlight Mile” is everything that Lehane readers have come to expect: a tight story filliped with unexpected turns, delivered in prose that goes down easily. Compulsively readable, the duo at its heart is well worth spending time with.

The story ends too soon — not because the ending is abrupt or unsatisfying; the conclusion absolutely works. But it’s too soon to leave Kenzie and Gennaro behind. They are addicting characters with a world of adventure, and developing lives, in front of them.

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